The Al-Zidi government approves 10 measures to combat corruption and rationalize public spending.
The Al-Zidi government approves 10 measures to combat corruption and rationalize public spending.
2026-07-05
Shafaq News – Baghdad
On Saturday, the Iraqi Cabinet, headed by Ali Faleh al-Zaidi, approved a package of decisions that included five measures to strengthen the fight against corruption, and five others to prevent the inflation of government project costs and rationalize public spending, in addition to decisions concerning the electricity, oil and education sectors.
Al-Zaydi’s office said in a statement received by Shafaq News Agency that the Prime Minister chaired the ninth regular session of the Council of Ministers, during which developments in the country were discussed, and the topics on the agenda were reviewed and the necessary directives and decisions were taken regarding them.
At the beginning of the session, the Prime Minister directed the Ministry of Interior and the National Investment Commission to coordinate and cooperate with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs to complete the procedures for issuing work permits in accordance with the law and the applicable instructions when granting entry visas to foreign workers.
The Cabinet approved the closure of the labor office affiliated with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs/Department of Labor and Vocational Training at the headquarters of the National Investment Commission, which was responsible for completing the procedures for issuing work permits in accordance with the law and instructions issued, due to the lack of need for it, in order to automate the procedures for granting entry visas electronically.
As part of the government’s ongoing efforts to combat corruption, the Cabinet approved the recommendations resulting from the performance evaluation of ministries, non-ministerial entities, and governorates, as follows:
1. The work of the investigative committees shall be completed within (60) days.
2. Increase the level of follow-up with the competent courts to resolve cases that have been pending for long periods.
3. Follow up on the collection of amounts ordered to be paid by court decisions to ministries or government agencies.
4. Government agencies must address all observations documented in the reports of the Financial Control Bureau, in order to ensure the improvement of their performance, and obligate government institutions to develop guidelines and adopt specific programs and manuals to improve the level of performance in the field of combating corruption.
5. Obliging all government institutions to identify manifestations of corruption, and obliging them to develop the efficiency of their employees and train them in the field of combating corruption.
With the aim of enhancing the efficiency of investment planning, rationalizing public spending, and preventing the inflation of government project costs as a result of introducing new components, the following was decided:
1. It is prohibited to create or add any new component, activity, phase, event or expansion to the projects included in the investment plan, after their inclusion has been approved by the Ministry of Planning, and the beneficiary entities are obligated to implement the project in accordance with the scope of work, components, costs and objectives approved upon inclusion.
2. Any work that was not included in the basic project study, its designs or approved planning documents is considered an independent project subject to inclusion, evaluation, comparison and allocation procedures in accordance with applicable legislation and regulations.
3. The provisions of this decision shall not apply to matters imposed by public safety requirements, emergency technical requirements, or legal obligations that cannot be foreseen when preparing the project.
4. The Ministry of Planning reviews requests for amendment or addition and ensures that they are not used to change the scope of the project, increase its cost, fragment it, exceed the priorities of the investment plan, or merge it in a way that affects the integrity of the planning.
5. The Ministry of Planning shall issue the necessary regulations for the implementation of this decision, and shall not act on any text that contradicts its provisions.
In order to improve the quality of government project preparation and ensure the protection of public funds, the Council decided to obligate contracting entities to include in contracts for the preparation of studies, designs, auditing and supervision an explicit clause holding the designing and auditing consulting entities fully legally and contractually responsible for any increase in project costs. This is to end the phenomenon of financial waste and avoid technical errors in the preparation of bills of quantities and statements. The Ministry of Planning shall prepare a unified mechanism to measure the extent of the deviation between the estimated costs and the contractual and final costs of government projects, identify its causes and the resulting responsibility, and submit an annual report to the Council of Ministers on the entities responsible for the deviations and the measures taken regarding them.
In the electricity file, the Cabinet approved authorizing the Ministry of Electricity to sign an agreement to implement the comprehensive plan to secure Iraq’s energy and develop the electricity sector (production and transmission) with the American company (GE), provided that the agreement enters into force concurrently with the entry into force of the framework agreement that is to be signed between Iraq and the United States of America, after the two parties sign it, and ends upon the conclusion of the contracts.
As part of the efforts to develop the oil sector, an agreement was approved to sign between the Ministry of Oil (Basra Oil Company and North Oil Company) with the American company (Chevron), which includes an advance payment agreement, a crude oil insurance agreement, and a letter of guarantee agreement, in order to achieve an increase in production.
The Council also approved Basra Oil Company signing a Memorandum of Understanding (HOA) and a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the consortium of companies consisting of (US-based Capital TI, Qatar-based UCC, and US-based Chevron), with the possibility of adding one of the public companies to this consortium to proceed with the following strategic paths and projects:
-The strategic export pipeline project (Basra – Haditha – Kirkuk – Ceyhan).
-Export pipeline project (Basra – Haditha – Banias).
To enable the coalition to begin preparing integrated technical and financial studies and plans and to choose between these vital paths, without any final financial or contractual obligations on the part of the Ministry of Oil.
With the aim of enhancing oil export flexibility, the tender for consultancy services for the Basra-Haditha crude oil export pipeline project was exempted from the instructions for implementing public contracts (1 of 2025), enabling the Basra Oil Company to proceed with the referral and contracting procedures with KBR to provide consultancy services for the project.
In the same context, the Council voted to approve the addition of (25) thousand barrels of crude oil to the Iraqi-Chinese agreement, and to open an account for it to ensure the payment of the financial obligations of the Iraqi side, in order to maintain Iraq’s credit position and the continuation of project financing from the Chinese side.
In the education sector, the Cabinet approved authorizing the Ministry of Education to announce a public tender for printing school textbooks with reputable local and foreign companies, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance to finance the necessary funds.
The General Company of Al-Nahrain was tasked with printing and producing educational supplies and printing school books, and it was also authorized to enter into contractual commitments with government and private printing houses for the remaining titles when the financial allocations are available.
The Council approved the Ministry of Planning’s loan of the tablets used in the general census of population and housing, numbering (1760) devices, to the General Real Estate Registration Department for use in entering data for the project to establish a database for property owners.
shafaq.com
